Tomorrow I am going to be selling my jewel cichlid, which will leave me with an empty ten gallon tank.

I am planning to build a water bridge between the 10 gallon and my 35 gallon.

Here is my plan-

I would like to use one roughly 3' piece of clear PVC pipe. I will have it resting on the edges of the two aqauriums an I will have elbows made of flexible, clear, plastic tubing, like that found on a gravel vacuum, except larger in diameter. This is going to be a fairly primitive design, so I hope it works.

Equipment List

3' Clear PVC Pipe
6" Flexible and Clear Hose
Duct Tape (Oh yeah!) (I said it would be primitive!!)
Small piece of wood

It should look something like this:

Obviously not technical drawings, but it is slightly understandable.

I just revised the original design. Has anyone got any suggestions to improve this? Any help would be appreciated._________________

If not, how are you going to fill the tube with water anyway? Because then both tanks have to have an equal water level so no siphoning occurs and air will remain trapped in the upper regions of the bridge unless you get a powerhead to push it all out or something.

As long as both intake tubes are completely submerged, a siphon cannot be created. Have you ever stuck your gravel vacuum's output end into a bucket full of water? I completely stops.

I actually planned this out to be like this, because if there ever was a chance of the water level dropping in one tank, the siphon would only last for a few gallons.

Situation 1

1)Water level in 35 gallon drops a couple of inches.
2)Siphon created from ten gallon
3)Siphon lost because air got into siphon- water level too low

Situation 2

1) Water level drops in ten gallon
2) Continuous siphon lost an contents of tube spill into 35 gallon.

Those are the only two things that could possibly happen, so I am not too worried. Plus, it is in a cemented garge that is on an angle, so if there was a spill, it would just run out of my driveway._________________

Hooray! I talked to my dad, and he know the guy that owns a local plastics shop. My dad will be able to get the clear pvc, plus he will get the guy to construct it for me. Major bonus for me... the guy is going to do it for my dad cheap!

As you can see, I added a 5.5 gallon sump to my design. The main reason is because I don't want this thing to overflow. Hopefully my design isn't overly flawed and my idea for pumping the water into the bridge will work. I will be replacing the hood on the 35 gallon because
I will be taking off all of the hobs, and possibly be adding them onto the sump for extra filtration.

If ANYONE can see ANY design flaws to this, please point them out, because I would like to make this perfect._________________

As long as both intake tubes are completely submerged, a siphon cannot be created. Have you ever stuck your gravel vacuum's output end into a bucket full of water? I completely stops.

I have to disagree on this one. If they are completely submerged and void of any air, you will have a complete siphon AND the water in the bucket should not stop only becuase it is submerged. It may appear that it is not flowing but it should continue unless again, THEY are at equal heights and have reached the state of equilibrium.

If you have one tank lower than the other, the higher WILL drain into the lower until the water levels are equal. Thank Sir Isaac Newton for that one (Law of Universal Gravitation)!

Every point mass (water in our case) attracts every other point mass by a force directed along the line connecting the two (I.e. the water bridge). This force is proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them:

For giggles!
F=G(m1m2/r2)

Flooding can be avoided with having the one tank lower than the other. However, you would need to pump the water from the lower tank back into the higher tank(s).

As Number6 said, with this set-up you will flood your parents house. _________________Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
-Patton

Okay... I may be able to lower the ten gallon, but it will take some work. I might just do a water bridge that goes from one side of the 35 gallon tank to the other.

As you can probably see, my tank is pretty much established, so it is really boring. I want something in/on it that will amaze people, but I cannot get any more fish, so it has to be an equipment thing._________________